The contributions of cognitive mechanisms of metaphor and metonymy to pragmatic and cognitive categorization processes are explored focusing on the use of sexual metaphors among Afrikaans-speaking South Africans. It is argued that sexual metaphor, in which a taboo domain of knowledge is expressed in non-taboo terminology characterized by a cognitive similarity-creating (i.e., A is like B) or similarity-based (i.e., A look like B) relation to the taboo term, is based on and sustains sexist culture and ideology. Contrastive analyses of sexual metaphor used by male university students and in (emerging) feminist circles confirm this hypothesis. Sexist sexual metaphors similar to those of the male students in other cultures are described, and it is claimed that conscious metaphor transformation such as that conducted by feminists may result in diminishing sexist stereotyping. (Copyright 1997, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (LLBA 1997, vol. 31, n. 5)